A Life Half-Empty

When I was a child, I thought that fifty was really, really old. But then I also thought that I would NEVER get to be 16 and drive my own car, NEVER reach 18 and finally be an adult...free from all of the oppression and rules that my parents imposed upon me. Little did I know that all the things I wished for would come true before I was even 30. What then? What happens when all of the "I can't wait for" moments have finally happened?

Then I turned 30. I stayed in bed until noon, mourning the loss of my youth and the end of my beginnings. My two-year-old got into bed with me and asked, "Mommy sad today?"

"Yes. Mommy's old today," I told her. And then I looked at her sweet face and realized that THERE was my youth--there was my life and my new beginnings!

I was so busy being a mom, a teacher, a wife, a home-owner, a best-friend, a daughter...that my 30s went by in a flash, and all of a sudden, I was 40. Inventory of my life: divorced, teenage daughter, teacher salary, on my own. A life half empty, or so I thought.